An epidemic of Ross River virus (RRV) occurred in the South Pacific in 1979–1980, but RRV has not been thought to occur endemically outside Australia and Papua New Guinea. A seroprevalence study was conducted to determine whether RRV has circulated in American Samoa since 1980.

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Honey bees are highly valued for their pollination services in agricultural settings, and recent declines in managed populations have caused concern. Colony losses following a major pollination event in the United States, almond pollination, have been characterized by brood mortality with specific symptoms, followed by eventual colony loss weeks later.

Zika virus (ZIKV) can cross the placental barrier, resulting in infection of the fetal brain and neurological defects including microcephaly. The cellular tropism of ZIKV and the identity of attachment factors used by the virus to gain access to key cell types involved in pathogenesis are under intense investigation. Initial studies suggested that ZIKV preferentially targets neural progenitor cells (NPCs), providing an explanation for the developmental phenotypes observed in some pregnancies.

Infection with West Nile virus (WNV) leads to a range of disease outcomes, including chronic infection, though lack of a robust mouse model of chronic WNV infection has precluded identification of the immune events contributing to persistent infection. Using the Collaborative Cross, a population of recombinant inbred mouse strains with high levels of standing genetic variation, we have identified a mouse model of persistent WNV disease, with persistence of viral loads within the brain.

Cutaneous granulomas are a well-recognized pathologic feature in patients with various primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDs) and may be self-limited or can progress to a persisting granulomatous disorder.1,2 Rubella virus (RV) vaccine strain RA27/3 has been recently detected in disseminated cutaneous granulomas of 2 patients with ataxia telangiectasia (AT) and a patient with Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome (who had combined immunodeficiency [CID]).3 However, a more detailed study of a larger series of granuloma cases in patients with different PIDs was required to confirm and extend this

A novel highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N8 virus, first detected in January 2014 in poultry and wild birds in South Korea, has spread throughout Asia and Europe, and caused outbreaks in Canada and the United States by the end of the year. The spread of H5N8 and the novel reassortant viruses, H5N2 and H5N1 (H5Nx), in domestic poultry across multiple states in the U.S. pose a potential public health risk. To evaluate the potential of cross-species infection, we determined the pathogenesis and transmissibility of two Asian-origin H5Nx viruses in mammalian animal models.

The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease in West Africa was of unprecedented magnitude and changed our perspective on this lethal but sporadically emerging virus. This outbreak also marked the beginning of large-scale realtime molecular epidemiology. Here, we show how evolutionary analyses of Ebola virus genome sequences provided key insights into virus origins, evolution and spread during the epidemic.

Human enterovirus 71 (EV-A71) causes hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). EV-A71 circulates in many countries and has caused large epidemics, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, since 1997. In April 2012, an undiagnosed fatal disease with neurological involvement and respiratory distress occurred in young children admitted to the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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A considerable amount of disease is transmitted from animals to humans and many of these zoonoses are neglected tropical diseases. As outbreaks of SARS, avian influenza and Ebola have demonstrated, however, zoonotic diseases are serious threats to global public health and are not just problems confined to remote regions. There are two fundamental, and poorly studied, stages of zoonotic disease emergence: ‘spillover’, i.e. transmission of pathogens from animals to humans, and ‘stuttering transmission’, i.e.